System, method, and program for filtering emails

ABSTRACT

[Object] To inspect emails without having to restrict the use of an email encryption function or the attachment of a file for which a password has been set. 
     [Solving Means] An email client includes an operation reception unit  110  for receiving an operation performed by a user and a processing unit  130  for performing a process according to this operation on an email. The email client also includes a detection unit  121  for detecting that the operation reception unit  110  has received a specific operation and an inspection unit  123  for, if a specific operation is detected, inspecting the email and a file to be attached to the email before the processing unit  130  performs a process according to the specific operation. If a password has been set for the file to be attached to the email, a password acquisition unit  122  acquires the password. A confirmation unit  124  inquires of a user about whether the process according to the operation received by the operation reception unit  110  should be performed, according to an inspection result.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to a system, a method, and a program forfiltering emails or files (attached files) attached to emails.

In recent years, companies have introduced email filtering systems forpurposes such as filtering of emails and prevention of leakage ofconfidential information. Among email filtering methods are a method(e.g., see Patent Document 1) including temporarily accumulating emailssent from client terminals in a server and collectively filtering theemails therein and a method (e.g., see Patent Document 2) in which eachclient terminal itself filters an email to be sent.

Patent Document 1 discloses a technology for, in a filtering server,determining whether each of emails sent from clients should be filteredand sorting out emails to be filtered thereby reducing the workload ofemail filtering imposed on a person in charge of email filtering.

Patent Document 2 discloses a technology for, in a terminal, acquiringan email, an instruction for transmission of which has been given, andchecking whether there are any restricted words in the email. Also,according to the technology described in Patent Document 2, if anyrestricted word is detected in the body of the email, the terminalissues an alarm message to the user in order to check whether the userstill intends to send the email.

[Patent Document 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application PublicationNo. 2002-290469

[Patent Document 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application PublicationNo. 2004-227056

DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION Problems to be Solved by the Invention

As described above, there are already related-art examples that filteremails in a server or terminals. However, with regard to theserelated-art examples, if the body of an email or a file attached to theemail is encrypted, for example, using S/MIME, the third party cannotinspect the body of the email or the contents of the attached file.Also, if a file for which a password has been set is attached to anemail, the password must be obtained in order to view the attached file.Therefore, it is difficult for the third party to inspect the contentsof the file. For these reasons, if a related-art email filtering systemis introduced, the use of the encryption function using S/MINE or thelike or the attachment of a file, for which a password has been set, toan email must be restricted.

Also, if an email client is offline when a user attempts to send anemail, the email client generally puts a sending process on hold.Subsequently, when the email client becomes online, it sends thereserved email. In this case, the email is inspected only when the emailclient becomes online and thus the email is actually sent. Therefore, atime difference is made between the time when the user has issues aninstruction for transmission and the time when the email is inspected.This prevents the user from causing the email client to inspect theemail or attached file immediately after the user has issued thetransmission instruction and then modifying the email or attached fileon the basis of a result of the inspection.

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a systemand the like that prevent leakage of confidential information withouthaving to restrict the use of an email encryption function or theattachment of a file for which a password has been set.

Means for Solving the Problems

With the above-described object, the present invention is realized as asystem described below. That is, the system includes an operationreception unit for receiving an operation performed by a user withrespect to an email; a processing unit for performing, on the email, aprocess according to the operation received by the operation receptionunit; a detection unit for detecting that the operation reception unithas received a specific operation; and an inspection unit for, if thedetection unit detects the specific operation, inspecting the email anda file to be attached to the email before the processing unit performs aprocess. More preferably, if the detection unit detects an operation forattaching the file to the email, the inspection unit inspects the emailand the file.

The above-described system may further include a password acquisitionunit for checking whether a password has been set for the file and, if apassword has been set, acquiring the set password. In this case, theinspection unit may authenticate the file using the password acquired bythe password acquisition unit so as to inspect the file. Also, thepassword acquisition unit may convey, to a user, a message urging theuser to input the set password and then receives the set passwordinputted by the user, so as to acquire the desired password. Or thepassword acquisition unit may acquire the set password by reading theset password from a password management file in which passwords that maybe used are collected.

The above-described system may further include a confirmation unit forconveying, to a user, a message for inquiring about whether the processaccording to the operation received by the operation reception unitshould be performed, on the basis of a result of the inspectionperformed by the inspection unit. In this case, if the confirmation unithas not conveyed the message or if an instruction for performance of theprocess is inputted, the processing unit may perform the process. If theinstruction for performance of the process is inputted, the processingunit may change the destination of the email to the address of a userwho has the authority to approve transmission of the email or may addsuch an address as a destination of the email.

The present invention may be realized as a method described below. Thatis, the method includes the steps of: receiving an operation performedby a user with respect to an email and detecting that a specificoperation has been received; if the specific operation is detected,inspecting the email and a file to be attached to the email; and afterthe inspection is performed, performing a process according to thereceived operation on the email.

Further, the present invention may be realized as a program forrealizing the functions of the above-described system by controlling acomputer, or a program for causing a computer to perform processescorresponding to the steps of the above-described method. Such a programis provided, for example, by recording the program in an optical disk, amagnetic disk, a semiconductor memory, or other recording media and thendistributing the program, or by distributing the program via a network.

Advantages

According to the present invention, an email and a file to be attachedto the email are inspected before a process such as encryption or fileattachment is performed. This prevents leakage of confidentialinformation without having to restrict the use of an email encryptionfunction or the attachment of a file for which a password has been set.

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

An embodiment of the present invention will now be described in detailwith reference to the accompanying drawings.

System Configuration

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a functional configuration of an emailclient according to this embodiment.

An email client 100 is a client terminal that is coupled to an emailserver 200 and intended to edit and send or receive emails. The emailclient 100 is realized by a computer such as a personal computer. Asshown in FIG. 1, the email client 100 includes an operation receptionunit 110, a detection unit 121, a password acquisition unit 122, aninspection unit 123, a confirmation unit 124, a processing unit 130, anda sending unit 140.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing an example configuration of a computer forrealizing the email client 100.

A computer 10 shown in FIG. 2 includes a central processing unit (CPU)10 a as a calculation means, and a main memory 10 c and a hard diskdrive (HDD) 10 g both as a storage means. The computer 10 also includesa network interface card 10 f for connecting the computer to an externaldevice via a network, a video card 10 d and a display 10 j both forproducing display output, and a voice mechanism 10 h for producing voiceoutput. The computer 10 further includes an input device 10 i such as akeyboard or a mouse.

As shown in FIG. 2, the main memory 10 c and video card 10 d are coupledto the CPU 10 a via a system controller 10 b. The network interface 10f, hard disk drive 10 g, voice mechanism 10 h, and input device 10 i arecoupled to the system controller 10 b via an I/O controller 10 e. Thesecomponents are coupled to one another via various types of buses such asa system bus and an input/output bus. For example, the CPU 10 a and mainmemory 10c are coupled to each other via a system bus or a memory bus.The CPU 10 a, and the HDD 10 g, network interface 10 f, video card 10 d,voice mechanism 10 h, input device 10 i, and the like are coupled toeach other via an input/output bus such as peripheral componentsinterconnect (PCI), PCI express, serial AT attachment (ATA), universalserial bus (USB), or accelerated graphics port (AGP).

FIG. 2 only illustrates a hardware configuration of a computer suitablefor applying this embodiment. Of course, actual email clients are notlimited to the illustrated configuration. For example, the computer mayinclude a video memory instead of the video card 10 d so that image datais processed by the CPU 10 a. Also, instead of providing the voicemechanism 10 h as an independent component, a chip set included in thesystem controller 10 b or I/O controller 10 e may serve as the voicemechanism 10 h. Also, besides the hard disk drive 10 g, drives usingvarious types of optical disks or flexible disks as media may beprovided as an auxiliary storage unit. While a liquid crystal display istypically used as the display 10 j, an arbitrary type of display such asa cathode ray tube (CRT) display or a plasma display may be usedinstead.

For example, the functions of the email client 100 shown in FIG. 1 arerealized when, in the computer shown in FIG. 2, the CPU 10 a executes aprogram read into the main memory 10 c. Among the functions shown inFIG. 1, the detection unit 121, password acquisition unit 122,inspection unit 123, and confirmation unit 124 (hereafter, thesefunctions will be collectively referred to as “email filteringfunctions”) perform email filtering. While a program for providing theseemail filtering functions is included in a program for realizing theemail client 100, an add-on module including the program for providingthe email filtering functions may be added on to an existing emailclient.

In FIG. 1, the operation reception unit 110 receives operations for anemail edit, file attachment, encryption, transmission, and the like thata user has performed, for example, using the input device 10 i shown inFIG. 2. After inspection, which is one of the email filtering functions,is performed, the processing unit 130 performs a process according tothe operation received by the operation reception unit 110.

The detection unit 121 detects a specific operation serving as an emailfiltering start condition, among operations received by the operationreception unit 110. Various types of operations may be set as operationsserving as email filtering start conditions. Also, multiple operationsmay be set depending on the type of filtering. For example, with regardto filtering of an attached file, an operation for attaching a file oran operation for transmission is set as a subject of detection. Withregard to filtering of the body of an email, an operation fortransmission or an operation for encryption is set as a subject ofdetection.

If a file attached to an email is filtered and if a password has beenset for the file, the password acquisition unit 122 acquires thepassword. Whether a password has been set for an attached file may bedetermined using an existing technology such as Application ProgramInterface (API) included in KeyView Filter (module) provided by theAutonomy Corporation.

Specifically, the password acquisition unit 122 inquires of a user(sender) about the set password, for example, by means such asdisplaying of a message on the display 10 j shown in FIG. 2, so as tourge the user to input the password. If the user inputs the password byoperating the operation reception unit 10 i, the password acquisitionunit 122 acquires the password via the input/output device 110. Also, ifa password management file, in which passwords used for attached filesare collected, is prepared in a storage means such as the hard diskdrive 10 g shown in FIG. 2, the password acquisition unit 122 maydirectly acquire the password by reading the password management file.In this case, the password set for the attached file may be identifiedby applying the passwords stored in the password management file oneafter another or by presuming the password on the basis of an attributeof the email, such as the sender, destination, or title.

If the detection unit 121 detects an operation serving as an emailfiltering start condition, the inspection unit 123 inspects the email.It is assumed in this embodiment that the email itself and attached fileare subjects of inspection. If a password has been set for the attachedfile, the inspection unit 123 authenticates the attached file using thepassword acquired by the password acquiring unit 122 and then inspectsthe file.

The inspection unit 123 first analyzes a subject of inspection (email orattached file) using an analysis module. Multiple analysis modules maybe prepared according to analysis types and any one or some of theanalysis modules may be selectively used according to the subject ofinspection. For example, analysis modules for determining the presenceor absence of a particular word (personal information, etc.) or thenumber of appearances of the particular word, whether a particularlanguage or font is used, whether a particular format is used, and thelike are prepared separately. These analysis modules are prepared by themanager of the email filtering system or a person in charge offiltering. Also, the system manager or person in charge of filteringmakes a setting about which analysis module will be applied to whichsubject of inspection.

The inspection unit 123 determines whether the email corresponds to aninappropriate item, according to a preset determination condition. As acondition for determining whether the email corresponds to aninappropriate item, various conditions such as a condition about anattribute of the email and a condition about a result of an analysisperformed using an analysis module may be set according to the types offiltering. As a condition about an attribute of the email, for example,the maximum number of email addresses settable as destinations (To, Cc,etc.), the presence or absence of an address or a domain, thetransmission of an email to which is prohibited, the maximum size of anemail, or the like is set. As a condition about an analysis result, forexample, the maximum number of pieces of personal information that maybe included in an email is set, provided that an analysis module capableof detecting personal information included in text is used. Also,different maximum numbers may be set according to types of personalinformation. Also, whether to determine that, in a case where ananalysis module has failed to properly filter an email to be filtered,the email is an inappropriate email may be set as a condition. The “casewhere an analysis module has failed to properly filter an email” refersto, for example, a case where the analysis module has sent back an erroror a case where it is determined that the description of the email haveundergone special encryption and thus has not taken a linguistic form.

Also, a determination condition specific to an attached file as well asthe above-described conditions about an analysis result may be set as adetermination condition with respect to filtering of an attached file.For example, the format of a file that is allowed to be attached may beset as a determination condition. Or, considering an attached file, forwhich a password has been set, as an inappropriate item if the sender ofthe email is inquired of about the password and then cancels the inputof the password may be set as a determination condition.

These determination conditions may be set, for example, for each user orfor each group of users. Like the analysis modules, these determinationconditions are set by the manager of the email filtering system orperson in charge of filtering. While a case where the analysis moduleand determination condition are set separately has been heretoforedescribed, a software module for collectively performing an analysis ona subject of inspection and a determination whether there is aninappropriate item may be prepared and applied.

If the inspection unit 123 determines that the subject of inspectioncorresponds to an inappropriate item, the confirmation unit 124 inquiresof the user about whether a process according to the operation receivedby the operation reception unit 110 should be performed. Specifically,the confirmation unit 124 provides notification to the user by meanssuch as displaying a confirmation message on the display 10 j shown inFIG. 2, and then receives input of an instruction given by the user. Inresponse to the confirmation message, the user may modify the email orattached file or may give an instruction for performance of the processwith the email or attached file left intact. If the user gives aninstruction for performance of the process with the email or attachedfile left intact, the confirmation unit 124 may receive input of acomment about the inspection result made by the user.

FIG. 3 is a drawing showing an example of a dialog box used when theconfirmation unit 124 conveys a confirmation message.

In FIG. 3, the main body of a message indicating the type of theinappropriate item, subjects of inspection in which the inappropriateitem has been detected, and the number of appearances of theinappropriate item are shown in a message field 301. The illustratedexample shows that by first performing an operation for sending theemail and then inspecting the email before performing a sending process,one piece of personal information or keyword, which is an inappropriateitem, has been detected in the email body and two pieces of personalinformation or keyword have been detected in the attached file.

Also, button objects 302 to be used when the user gives an instructionare provided in the dialog box shown in FIG. 3. If the user selects a“YES” button, for example, by clicking the button using a mouse, thetransmission of the email, which is a process according to the operationthat the user has performed first, is performed. At that time, theconfirmation unit 124 may perform an additional process on the email aswill be described later. On the other hand, if the user selects a “NO”button, the operation for sending the email that the user has performedfirst is canceled. In this case, the user may eliminate the personalinformation or keyword by editing the email or attached file and thenperform an operation for sending the email again.

If the process is the transmission of the email and if the user gives aninstruction for the performance of the transmission with the email andattached file left intact, the confirmation unit 124 adds another user(person in charge of filtering, superior, etc.), who has the authorityto filter the email, as a destination of the email, and attaches aresult of the inspection performed by the inspection unit 123 to theemail and sends the email. If the user, who is the sender of the email,inputs his or her comment about the inspection result, this comment isalso sent to the other user, who has the authority to filter the email,together with the email. Also, if a file, for which a password has beenset, is attached to the email, a password acquired by the passwordacquisition unit 122 is also sent to the other user, who has theauthority to filter the email, together with the email.

The processing unit 130 performs a process according to the operationreceived by the operation reception unit 110. For example, if theoperation reception unit 110 has received an operation for attaching afile to an email, the processing unit 130 attaches a specified file tothe email, which is the subject of processing. If the operationreception unit 110 has received an operation for sending an email, theprocessing unit 130 sends the email, which is the subject of processing,via the sending unit 140. If the operation reception unit 110 hasreceived an operation for encrypting and then sending an email, theprocessing unit 130 encrypts and then sends the email.

If the detection unit 121 detects a specific operation, the processingunit 130 performs a process according to the specific operation afterthe inspection unit 123 and confirmation unit 124 perform respectiveprocesses as described above. For example, if an operation forencryption is set as a specific operation in advance and if an operationfor encryption is performed, an email to be encrypted is inspected andthe user is inquired about a result of the inspection as necessary, andthen the processing unit 130 encrypts the email.

If the operation reception unit 110 has received an operation forsending an email, the sending unit 140 sends the email, which is thesubject of processing, to the email server 200 under the control of theprocessing unit 130.

As is understood from the above-description, if an operation forperforming a predetermined process on an email is inputted, the email isinspected before actually undergoing the process. Thus, even if theemail client 100 is offline at the time when the operation is inputted,the inspection is performed in real time. Also, the user may immediatelymodify the email or attached file on the basis of a result of theinspection.

Operations of Email Client 100

Operations of the email client 100 will now be described.

FIGS. 4 to 6 are flowcharts showing the flow of operations of the emailclient 100.

Hereafter, operations (FIG. 5) performed when an email itself isinspected and operations (FIG. 6) performed when an attached file isinspected will be described separately.

As shown in FIG. 4, in the email client 100, the operation receptionunit 110 first receives an inputted operation (step 401). Then, thedetection unit 121 determines whether a specific operation, which is aninspection start condition, has been received (step 402). If theoperation received by the operation reception unit 110 is not a specificoperation (NO in step 402), the flowchart returns to step 401 and theoperation reception unit 110 waits for a subsequent operation to beinputted.

If the operation received by the operation reception unit 110 is aspecific operation (YES in step 402), the detection unit 121 determineswhether the specific operation is an operation for attaching a file toan email (step 403). If the specific operation is not such an operation(No in step 403), the inspection unit 123 inspects the email (step 404).On the other hand, if the specific operation is such an operation (YESin step 403), the inspection unit 123 inspects the attached file (step405) and then inspects the email (step 404).

Referring to FIG. 5, the inspection of an email will be described.

The inspection unit 123 analyzes the email, which is the subject ofanalysis, using a prepared analysis module (step 501). Then, theinspection unit 123 makes a determination about the analysis resultaccording to a predetermined determination condition (step 502). If itis determined that the email corresponds to no inappropriate items (NOin step 503), the processing unit 130 performs a process (encryption,transmission, etc. of an email) corresponding to the operation receivedby the operation reception unit 110 on the email, which is the subjectof processing (step 506).

If it is determined that the email corresponds to an inappropriate item(YES in step 503), the confirmation unit 124 conveys, to the user, aconfirmation message for inquiring about whether a process should beperformed on the email (step 504). For example, if the user selects“YES” in the dialog box shown in FIG. 3 to give an instruction for theperformance of the process (YES in step 505), the processing unit 130performs the process corresponding to the operation received in step 401of FIG. 4 (step 506).

On the other hand, if the user selects “NO” in the dialog box shown inFIG. 3 to give an instruction for the cancellation of the process (NO instep 505), the operation received in step 401 of FIG. 4 is cancelled(step 507).

Referring now to FIG. 6, the inspection of an attached file will bedescribed.

First, the password acquisition unit 122 checks whether a password hasbeen set for the attached file (step 601). If a password has been set,the password acquisition unit 122 acquires the password by inquiring ofthe user about the password or by accessing the password management file(step 602). Later operations are almost the same as those performed whenthe email is inspected, which are shown in FIG. 5.

The inspection unit 123 analyzes the file, which is the subject ofanalysis, using a prepared analysis module (step 603). Then, theinspection unit 123 makes a determination about a result of the analysisaccording to a predetermined determination condition (step 604). If itis determined that the file corresponds to no inappropriate items (NO instep 605), the processing unit 130 attaches the file, which is thesubject of processing, to an email (step 608).

On the other hand, if it is determined that the file corresponds to aninappropriate item (YES in step 605), the confirmation unit 124 conveys,to the user, a confirmation message for inquiring about whether theattachment of the file should be performed (step 606). For example, ifthe user selects “YES” in the dialog box shown in FIG. 3 to give aninstruction for the performance of the file attachment (YES in step607), the processing unit 130 attaches the file to the email (step 608).

On the other hand, if the user selects “NO” in the dialog box shown inFIG. 3 to give an instruction for the cancellation of the fileattachment (NO in step 607), an operation for attaching a file to anemail that has been received in step 401 of FIG. 4 is cancelled (step609).

While the embodiment of the present invention has been heretoforedescribed, the technical scope of the invention is not limited to theembodiment. For example, in the above-described embodiment, the attachedfile is inspected when an operation for attaching a file to an email isinputted; however, the inspection may be performed at an arbitrarytiming before the email is sent. Also, it will be apparent from thedescription of the appended claims that what are obtained by makingvarious changes or modifications to the above-described embodiment fallwithin the technical scope of the present invention.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a functional configuration of an emailclient according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a hardware configuration of a computer forrealizing the email client according to this embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a drawing showing an example of a dialog box used when aconfirmation unit conveys a confirmation message.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing the flow of operations performed by theemail client according to this embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a flowchart showing operations performed when an email itselfis inspected.

FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing operations performed when an attached fileis inspected.

REFERENCE NUMERALS

100 email client

110 operation reception unit

121 detection unit

122 password acquisition unit

123 inspection unit

124 confirmation unit

130 processing unit

140 sending unit

1. An email filtering system comprising: an operation reception unit executing in a computer with a processor and memory for receiving an operation performed by a user with respect to an email; a processing unit executing the computer for performing, on the email, a process according to the operation received by the operation reception unit; a detection unit executing in the computer for detecting that the operation reception unit has received a specific operation; and an inspection unit executing in the computer for, if the detection unit detects the specific operation, inspecting the email and a file to be attached to the email before the processing unit performs a process.
 2. The system according to claim 1, wherein if the detection unit detects an operation for attaching the file to the email, the inspection unit inspects the email and the file.
 3. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a password acquisition unit executing in the computer for checking whether a password has been set for the file to be attached to the email and, if a password has been set, acquiring the set password, wherein the inspection unit authenticates the file using the password acquired by the password acquisition unit so as to inspect the file.
 4. The system according to claim 3, wherein the password acquisition unit conveys, to a user, a message urging the user to input the set password and receives the set password inputted by the user, so as to acquire the set password.
 5. The system according to claim 3, wherein the password acquisition unit acquires the set password by reading the set password from a password management file in which passwords that may be used are collected.
 6. The system according to claim 1, further comprising a confirmation unit executing in the computer for conveying, to a user, a message for inquiring about whether the process according to the operation received by the operation reception unit should be performed, on the basis of a result of the inspection performed by the inspection unit, wherein if the confirmation unit has not conveyed the message or if an instruction for performance of the process is inputted, the processing unit performs the process.
 7. The system according to claim 6, wherein if the instruction for performance of the process is inputted, the processing unit sets, for a destination of the email, an address of a user having the authority to approve transmission of the email.
 8. An email filtering method using an email filtering system executing in a computer with a processor and memory, the method comprising the steps of: receiving in the email filtering system executing in the computer an operation performed by a user with respect to an email and detecting that a specific operation has been received; if the specific operation is detected, inspecting the email and a file to be attached to the email; and after the inspection is performed, performing a process in the computer according to the received operation on the email.
 9. The method according to claim 8, wherein if an operation for attaching a file to the email is detected, inspecting the email and the file.
 10. The method according to claim 8, further comprising the step of checking whether a password has been set for a file to be attached to the email and, if a password has been set, acquiring the set password, wherein in the step of inspecting the email and the file, the file is authenticated using the acquired password so as to inspect the file.
 11. The method according to claim 8, further comprising the step of conveying, to a user, a message for inquiring about whether the process according to the operation should be performed, on the basis of a result of the inspection, wherein in the step of performing the process, if the message has not been conveyed or if an instruction for performance of the process is inputted, the processing unit performs the process.
 12. A computer program product comprising a computer usable medium embodying computer usable program code for email filtering, the computer program product comprising: computer usable program code for receiving an operation performed by a user with respect to an email; computer usable program code for performing, on the email, a process according to the operation received by the operation reception means; computer usable program code for detecting that the operation reception means has received a specific operation; and computer usable program code for, if the specific operation is detected, inspecting the email and a file to be attached to the email before the process performing means performs a process.
 13. The program product according to claim 12, wherein if an operation for attaching the file to the email is detected, the email and file inspecting means inspects the email and the file.
 14. The program product according to claim 12, the program product causing the computer to further function as computer usable program code for checking whether a password has been set for the file to be attached to the email and, if a password has been set, acquiring the set password, wherein the email and file inspecting means authenticates the file using the acquired password so as to inspect the file.
 15. The program product according to claim 12, the program product causing the computer to further function as computer usable program code for conveying, to a user, a message for inquiring about whether the process according to the operation should be performed, on the basis of a result of the inspection, wherein if the message has not been conveyed or if an instruction for performance of the process is inputted, the process performing means performs the process. 